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March 2005 Magazine Contents

Arturia caught our attention with Storm, the virtual studio suite, but of late they have diversified into emulating classic hardware instruments. So how do they fare in their attempt to capture the mighty Minimoog in software?

Even the best weighted keyboards and sample libraries offer only an approximation to the feel and sound of an old-fashioned piano. So what if you just can't do without the real thing, but need to have your notes output as MIDI? Enter the Piano Bar from synth pioneers Bob Moog and Don Buchla...

The AMD Athlon 64-based music computers from UK retailer Dawsons Music offer performance comparable to the very fastest Pentium 4 CPUs, and are ready to take advantage of 64-bit music software once it becomes available.

FL Studio has always been popular with those seeking a cost-effective, easy-to-use alternative to the 'big name' sequencers. The latest version adds a new drum sequencing tool, high-quality time-stretching and video support.

Until now, MADI interfacing has been restricted to high-end digital desks, but RME's affordable hardware brings it to the project studio market. If you need a lot of inputs or outputs within an ASIO environment, their soundcard and 64-channel MADI-to-ADAT converter could be the perfect choice.

Giving a modern instrument the same name as a line of vintage analogues that have an assured place in the synth hall of fame invites comparisons. So is the Juno-D the rightful heir to the Juno throne or more of a young pretender?

Hot on the heels of FXpansion's colossal BFD comes another 30 Gigabyte sampled drum library with a software front-end. DFH Superior offers complete control over the spill between all the drums and mics in your virtual kit, as well as obsessive levels of multisampling!

With affordable capacitor mics now flooding the market, more musicians than ever before have access to the means to make high-quality recordings. But if you are new to this type of mic, there are some important things you need to know to get good results without damaging your investment.

Apple kicked off a potentially exciting year for their customers at the 2005 Macworld show in San Francisco with a host of new and updated products, including the most affordable Macintosh computer the company has ever brought to market.

Celebrities from around the world were keen to contribute to a fund-raising single for victims of the Asian tsunami, and converting all of this goodwill into a finished record required innovative use of broadband Internet to collect together their performances.

Most hardware devices you use with your PC require drivers — but what happens to them and their associated files when you change the hardware or update to new drivers? Unfortunately, they hang about in various locations, cluttering your hard drive and storing up problems for the future. We explain how to make a clean sweep and get rid of them once and for all.

Sonar offers lots of useful metering options you may not even be aware of, so this month we run through them and why you might want to use them, as well as getting clever with colours and explaining how to make your screen setup a hint more transparent...

Producer, singer/songwriter Trevor Horn has been at the forefront of technological innovation since his earliest work with The Buggles, in a career that has yielded countless classic singles and albums.